She served as counselor, consoler and cheerleader to generations of customers who dropped by for a beer, stayed awhile and came to love her.

Thomas — who was described as buoyant and resilient, belying the tough hand life dealt her — died Thursday of lung cancer. She was 80.

“Basically, she was a lady who had a sixth-grade education and walked with a limp,” her son Tommy Thomas said. “Her childhood was filled with a lot of work.”

“If the dishes didn't get done, she got whipped,” her son said, describing her upbringing as “old-school.” “That's why she was so lenient on us.”

Born in San Antonio and raised on a St. Hedwig farm, Thomas was the oldest of six children who grew up in cotton fields. She helped raise her siblings.

They lived in an old wooden country shack. Thomas would joke that her family was so poor they used dirt for pepper, daughter Valerie Thomas Wishert said. “She wanted to make sure we had things,” she said.

Thomas had to walk a half-mile just to get to the road. After she broke a leg, that walk got even longer. Ultimately, she stopped taking it.